The Long-Run Economic Effects of Citizen Environmental Governance in China

Air and water pollution remain among the most serious threats to human well-being in developing countries. Although many governments have adopted stringent environmental standards, enforcement is often incomplete, especially when local regulators must balance environmental protection against economic growth. A central question for both scholarship and policy is therefore whether low-cost mechanisms of public accountability can generate sustained improvements in environmental performance, and what economic costs such improvements impose on regulated firms. This project studies the question: do temporary improvements in environmental accountability generate persistent changes in firm behavior and regulatory enforcement?